Head empty, occasionally spews word vomit

[mr-leach]

My own son??? Happy to see ME??? For real?!?

[tlirsgender]

It's called hard sci-fi because it's not as easy

[tlirsgender]

I thought it'd be fun if I made aliens that respirate CO² into O² like plants but I started thinking about how I'm not actually sure how exactly those chemical processes work and now I'm on the wikipedia page for nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate

[tlirsgender]

I feel like the media literacy ogre for biochemistry

[dysphoria-things]

shoutout to offputting autistic people

[dysphoria-things]

i am so sick of “social communication difficulties” being painted as like. haha i said something out of turn! haha i talk too loud! haha i was silly when i should’ve been serious! im so weird lol.

shoutout to people who get told they stare and their eyes are too wide and they always look nervous or too intense. shoutout to people who don’t know why the conversation dies right after you interject. shoutout to people who never know how to get your thoughts into words. shoutout to people who need clarification so much no one ever tells you things. shoutout to people who always feel resented. shoutout to people who don’t know how to be in conversation. shoutout to people who struggle with social function in a way that can’t be uwu-ified.

[byc0n3j0]

!

[nondivisable]

me carrying a stuffed animal around while being disabled is not "infantilizing disability"

I am an actually disabled person who carries a stuffed animal as comfort bc disability is hard

what's "infantilizing disability" is assuming that just bc I carry a stuffed animal I'm not capable of making decisions for myself. or that having a stuffed animal makes me a less serious, adult person than you are.

[the-fae-folk]

what actually happens if the fae take your name? how does that work in real life? do people just forget your name or what?

Well it depends. In the old stories this phrasing only meant that you accidentally revealed your full name to the Folk and thereby gave them power over you. With your name they could enchant or lure you, they might even be able to influence your behavior. When you know someone’s name you have a certain measure of power over them.  You can do things like catch their attention by saying out loud, referring to them even when they are not present, or even using their influence to bolster your own. But humans don’t have the necessary skills and powers needed to do much more than simple things with a name. Fae, unfortunately, do have such skills and powers. This is why people feared them. However something interesting has happened in contemporary fantasy surrounding Fae. The idea that the Fae could quite literally steal your name. To be sure, from all that the Fae are able to do in their various myths and folklore, I doubt that such a feat would be impossible for them. Nor would it be at all out of the way to label them as thieves. Not only did they routinely steal food or materials from houses and barns, but they often abducted children, babies, and even unwary adults. I’ve been putting some thought into how it might work if the Faeries did steal your name from you, or you accidentally gave it to them. Imagine for a moment that your name has been stolen. Well names are actually pretty easy to come by most of the time. Most people have nicknames of all kinds, and nearly everybody has a last name to fall back on and sometimes an extra name or two between their first and last names. You find that people begin to fall back on these other names that belong to you. If they think hard or are reminded they can probably remember the name that used to be yours, but they might be unable to shake off the feeling that it’s wrong somehow, that it doesn’t belong to you or fit you anymore. You might even pick up a new name, one you’ve chosen yourself or a new nickname. Most people will happily move to that, thinking in their secret most thoughts that it feels right, more comfortable, but never quite able to consciously say why. Even parents might find this to be true, as years and years of calling you by the name they chose seem to not matter that much as they slip into calling you something else entirely. But what about birth certificates? Mail? Checks and other official documents that have your name? You’ll still find them. Sometimes official documents, especially new ones, can get the names mixed up or changed and it just stays like that for years until someone notices. Or papers can get smeared if they’re written in pencil, or dripped on by ink or something else. But most often I would imagine they stay the same as they always were. In the eyes of most human governments, it doesn’t really matter if your name fits you as long as all the papers are in order that say its yours. If they wanted to, a Faerie (or even a perfectly ordinary human with malicious intent) could use this against you and commit identity theft to gain even more of what you have for their own. But most of the time I doubt the Fae would care about your finances or anything else unless you did something to offend them. I don’t think everyone would suddenly and magically forget your name entirely and forever as if it never had been. Mostly because that would cause a huge stir as people suddenly find that a person whose name they’ve known all their life suddenly doesn’t seem to have a name and they can’t remember or find it. People would notice and raise a fuss. And how many people do you know, even casually, that would know your name somehow? Probably a lot of people, to make that many people forget would have to involve a serious amount of power. While its not impossible that a Faerie would go to all this effort to directly punish you for something that infuriated them, I find it a little hard to believe they’d put that much effort in for it when they could just turn you into a goat or something else of that sort and be done with it.

[nothorses]

ah. elon musk is fully dedicating himself and all of his wealth to trans genocide

[nothorses]

hey it's time to start REALLY educating the people in your life on this stuff. classmates, teachers, coworkers, family- anyone you think might listen to you.

I'm dead serious. they legitimately do not know what's going on, and if they do, they don't understand the extent or the urgency of it.

don't just send them shit to read; talk to them. engage them in conversation & make them think deeply about it. attach your face and your relationship to it. help them come up with their own thoughts, feelings, opinions, and ideas about what's going on; that's often enough for them to start talking about it to more people.

give them some shit to do; talk to more people, go to this event, use this website to send a letter to a representative, whatever. something they can do, or at least think about doing, so they're motivated to keep thinking and taking about it.

even the most vocal Trans Allies- even a lot of trans people!!- just straight up don't know what's happening, or how unusual & urgent it is, and they're simply not going to get that from a website alone.

anyone you can reach. now's the time.

[nothorses]

context!

[deebrisbyfish]

Some folks would prefer that I keep politics OUT of my comic strip, but… uh… it’s a comic about my life as a transgender woman, and it’s KINDA hard to not be a smidge political when one party keeps pushing and passing laws that make it a crime for me to exist.  So, sorry if you feel this is unfair, but it feels pretty frickin’ unfair to be labeled a literal criminal for existing. 

[edeer-moved]

RETURN OF THE OBRA DINN

[flowergrenades]

*through gritted teeth* you are not a child taking a test with the purpose of getting the highest score, you are an adult trying new things and finding ways to enjoy your life, make mistakes, be a beginner, be mediocre, be where you need to be, be unlikeable, just. be.

[writingquestionsanswered]

idk if this is your kinda question but I have this plot idea that I'm not sure I should go through with

so the idea is there's this corrupt organization controlling a city. (This is a low fantasy setting) but nobody really knows all too well. The two protagonists reach the city and think everything's cool, and meet this scholar/guide character. She acts as the intellectual and moral center when things seem confusing or immoral. Even has a bit of ship tease with the (fem) protagonist.

Anyway, I was thinking the scholar finds out about the corrupt organization's true nature, and tries really really hard to escape and tell everyone, but the organization kills her and tries to make her disappear.

I'm worried that this will be too close to the Fridging and bury your gays tropes. My friend says it's not because it's to show how bad the organization is, but I'm not sure. Should I write this? And if yes, anything I should do to stay clear of fridging?

Fridging, Bury Your Gays, and Killing a Character

Let's start with some definitions...

Fridging is often used to describe any situation where a character who is a woman dies for the sole purpose of creating drama for the protagonist or another main character, but true fridging is specific to when a girl or woman character loved by a man dies to create drama for him or kick off the events of his story. In either case, fridged characters usually serve no other purpose in the story, the death serves no other purpose, and the fridged character does not have their own arc or storyline.

Bury Your Gays is mistaken as meaning "a gay character dies" but it's actually when writers treat their LGBTQ+ characters as being more expendable than the story's straight characters. This typically occurs when an LGBTQ+ character (in a largely straight cast) dies or is killed solely to create drama for the central characters or further the events of the story. Other typical elements include: the character is coded as LGBTQ+ but not fully depicted, they're in a relationship with a central character, they die in a way that's violent or tragic, their death is non-heroic and serves no other purpose but to further events for a largely straight cast, the LGBTQ+ character has little to no agency in their death, the LGBTQ+ character serves no other purpose in the story but to die to create drama, the LGBTQ+ character is the first to die in the story, the LGBTQ+ character is killed shortly after coming out or after a happy relationship moment, there aren't LGBTQ+ central characters who survive and get happy endings, there aren't straight central characters who also die in tragic or violent ways.

Since your character seems to serve a purpose in the story other than to die (literal role: scholar/guide, figurative role: intellectual and moral center, active role: discovers organization's true nature and tries to escape and alert everyone) it sounds like you're part of the way covered. My concerns would be: 1) The "bit of a ship tease" element, because you never want to ship tease, especially with an LGBTQ+ character, especially when that character is going to die. Also, teasing an LGBTQ+ relationship but not delivering is called "queerbaiting" and should be avoided. So, either put them in an actual relationship with one another, or at least have them in relationships with other LGBTQ+ characters.

2) It also sounds like this character is LGBTQ+ coded rather than fully depicted--like you're using the "bit of a ship tease" to code the them as LGBTQ+ but aren't fully depicting them as an LGBTQ+ character. If you're going to make them LGBTQ+, fully depict them as LGBTQ+. Don't hint at it in the margins and expect that to count as representation.

3) Make sure the scholar character has some agency in their death... like they're choosing to take the risk of escaping to warn everyone even knowing they might die in the process. If there's some way you can make their death not for nothing--like because they tried to escape, they got an important warning message out to the others--then it makes their death heroic and not pointless.

Happy writing!

•••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••••

I’ve been writing seriously for over 30 years and love to share what I’ve learned. Have a writing question? My inbox is always open!

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[random-questions-fairy]

Oh my gosh. I just found this website that walks you though creating a believable society. It breaks each facet down into individual questions and makes it so simple! It seems really helpful for worldbuilding!

[theredscreech]

Heads up that this is a very extensive questionnaire and might be daunting to a lot of writers (myself included). That being said, it is also an amazing questionnaire and I will definitely be using it (or at the very least, some of it).

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

not to alarm anyone but if u look at the moon with one eye and then close it and open the other one you see another identical moon a little bit to the left. why has science covered up the existence of this second, secret moon? we are the people and we demand answers

[tattoos-and-disappointment]

Parallax, my friend

[threebigolsausages-deactivated2]

thats a stupid name. it should be called “moon 2″

[no-longer-another-bondi-blonde]

[huckleberrywine]

LOL

[debkorvelus]

We need HOAs or some idiots will paint their house purple or put tractor tires in their front yard.  If you want tractor tires, don’t move to a HOA neighborhood.

[captain-snark]

I couldn’t even fathom how horrifying it must be to live somewhere there are...purple houses and and yucky stuff in people’s yards. Thank God I don’t have any real problems like that.

[scrimblobimblobadimbo-deactivat]

listen my Nonna and Nonno live right by a purple house (it’s a nice lilac) and as a kid I was fucking obsessed with it because purple is my favorite color. I’d go nuts whenever we passed by it. Also it had a purple mailbox to match and it blew my mind.

No more HOAs. More purple houses.

[antelopian]

imagine trying to control what someone else can do with or on their own property just because you don't agree with their taste in decor

[tarantula-veins-deactivated2023]

NO MORE HOAs MORE PURPLE HOUSES

[gallusrostromegalus]

Related, becuase I just had to move:  “just don’t move into an HOA” Do you know what a PAIN IN THE ASS it is to find NON-HOA Housing? Very nearly everything in the CO front range that isn’t a rental has an HOA these days!

Short list of the Shit the HOA at my pervious house tried to pull:

Banning personal and community food gardens (The reason the tag for my garden is “The garden of earthly HOA violations”)

Banning people from using thier personal yards as Native Plant Restoration microzones, something that looks gorgeous and is extremely helpful to the local ecology

trying to get the city council to remove protections on adjacent city Open Space/Native Plant restoration zone so they could mow it.

mandating the use of ONE landscaping company in the neighborhood, coinicdentally owned by the HOA president’s son

Mandating the use of an unecessary water purification company on all properties.

suing city animal control for collecting lose dogs and cats and returning them to the addresses on thier collars.  You know. that thing animal control does so the animals don’t get run over or disemboweled by the coyotes or catch and spread rabies.  The thing that’s illegal to let your pet do out here for those reasons Karen.

Suing the city council to remove a city bus stop in the neighborhood that was heavily used by many residents.  They damn near got away with it becuase the HOA meetings were always in the middle of the day on a weekday.  You know, when the residents that use that stop are working.

Sending people letters threatening to fine them for having “Out Of Season” holiday decor.  Specifically targeting my Indian neighbors who were celebrating Diwali, not Christmas and the Jews with visible Menorahs.

Fining people for doing thier own appliance and car repair on thier own personal property

Fining people for operating a business out of thier house, specifically targeting a disabled neighbor that does comission tailoring and garment repair out of her home.  never bothered a soul except the one snoopy bitch who didn’t like that her clients were allowed to park in the tailor’s designated and otherwise unused parking space.

Trying to fine a neighbor for flying a Pride Flag

HOAs are invasive, bigoted, corrupt and cruel institutions that should never have been allowed to be created.  If you live in and HOA area, showing up at the meetings to tell people what the fuck is wrong with them, Joining your HOA board to protect your neighbors and possibly organize the dissolution of the HOA is one of the best things you can do to protect the marginalized members of your community.

FUCK HOAs AND LONG LIVE THE PURPLE HOUSES AND TRACTOR-TIRE GARDENS OF THE WORLD.

[mariaalenkoshepard]

Are y'all telling me this shit is actually LEGAL?

[s-shutup-its-not-like-i-actually]

Here’s how to get an HOA to leave you and your purple house tf alone

[justsomeantifas]

cant stop thinking about this post. 😔

[that-catholic-shinobi]

direct action

[prismatic-bell]

HOAs, IN THEORY, could be such a force for public good, and that’s what’s maddening. Imagine if an HOA was like “well we’ve got all these houses and this one empty lot, pay your HOA dues and we can install a community food garden!” or “leave your contact information on the HOA residents-only webpage if you’re willing to be an after-school dropoff for children in our community who may not have a parent at home” or “hi, Sally, we’ve noticed your yard’s gone rather hogwild and things weren’t like that before your husband passed last year, do you need some help? We have some folks in the HOA who can help you with maintenance, no charge.”

Instead they choose isolation over community in the name of a unity that’s in image only, and that’s really, really sad.

[anotherdayforchaosfay]

Friend of mine bought a small house, an old one in an old neighborhood. She had no idea it was an HOA neighborhood until the day she moved in. They arrived with paperwork she "had" to sign or things would get "complicated", aka do this or we're gonna make life hell for you. She immediately told them no, she has no desire to be part of the HOA, and they about blew a gasket. Went from civil to wtf real quick. They tried sending her violation reports, demanded she pay fines, threatened her, etc. What they didn't know is she's petty and gives zero fucks. She also lives keeping paperwork nice and tidy.

Shit hit the fan when she installed a wall around her property. A 3 feet tall 2 foot wide wall around her yard. Topped with gorgeous iron work with sharp points that make climbing dangeous. Think Addams Family Lite. They tried to stop the construction because she was using the /wrong/ company (a mutual aid group she worked with). Send her fines and fees, and made the mistake of sending a copy of the HOA contract with a forged signature.

Ooooo...it got so ugly! She remembered the HOA post here about that happening to others and, well, the HOA broke up because of other fuckery on top of this. But it was mostly due to her dragging them in court for fraud, harassment, disturbing the peace, trespassing, stalking, and a few other things. She was petty about it too, looked into every fucking thing she could to destroy them.

I was informed that you not, in fact, obligated to sign the HOA contract. It's not a legal requirement. When you look for a home, make sure to ask about the possible HOAs, and look at the details of your homeowner's contract. Sometimes HOAs have that shit written into the purchase. If you see it, change the contract, put your initials and date in the changed sections, and see how the real estate agent handles in. This is legal, btw.

Don't sign the HOA contract, learn the laws regarding yard stuff (did you know you can apply to have your yard declared a wildlife reserve?), and be petty af when the nosy neighbors won't mind their business.

[doped-up-marxist]

"Don't lie to people" is all very good until u remember how funny it is to give the wrong birthday to an astrology person and have them go "that explains so much abt you

[youcancallmekathyp]

Caleb&Jester + Her last wishes.

“Every single temple that you come across, there has to be one dick you’ll leave behind.”

“Well. I promise I will.”

[kendallroy-deactivated20210425]

what the suez canal actually needs are 3-5 of those retired italian men to stand on the side of the canal and offer suggestions. i bet that’d get it unstuck

[deadpanwalking]

[autistic-apple-sauce]

This still blows my mind